The Unmasking of Robert-Houdin
E897304
The Unmasking of Robert-Houdin is a controversial 1908 book by magician Harry Houdini that critically challenges the legacy and originality of famed French illusionist Jean-Eugène Robert-Houdin.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| The Unmasking of Robert-Houdin canonical | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T10964357 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
Target entity: The Unmasking of Robert-Houdin Context triple: [Harry Houdini, authored, The Unmasking of Robert-Houdin]
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A.
Mesmerism
Mesmerism is a historical practice based on Franz Mesmer’s theories of “animal magnetism,” involving trance-like states and hypnotic techniques that influenced later concepts of hypnosis and spiritual healing.
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B.
The Invisible Circus
The Invisible Circus is a 2001 British drama film adapted from Jennifer Egan’s novel, following a young woman’s journey across Europe in the 1970s to uncover the truth about her radical older sister’s mysterious death.
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C.
The Invisible Circus
The Invisible Circus is Jennifer Egan’s debut novel, a coming-of-age story that follows a young woman retracing her radical older sister’s footsteps across 1970s Europe to uncover the truth about her mysterious death.
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D.
La Clef des Grands Mystères
La Clef des Grands Mystères is a 19th-century occult treatise by Éliphas Lévi that explores ceremonial magic, esoteric philosophy, and the symbolic foundations of Western mysticism.
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E.
The Book of Illusions
The Book of Illusions is a novel by Paul Auster that follows a grieving academic obsessed with a vanished silent film star, blending mystery, metafiction, and meditations on identity and loss.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
Target entity: The Unmasking of Robert-Houdin Target entity description: The Unmasking of Robert-Houdin is a controversial 1908 book by magician Harry Houdini that critically challenges the legacy and originality of famed French illusionist Jean-Eugène Robert-Houdin.
-
A.
Mesmerism
Mesmerism is a historical practice based on Franz Mesmer’s theories of “animal magnetism,” involving trance-like states and hypnotic techniques that influenced later concepts of hypnosis and spiritual healing.
-
B.
The Invisible Circus
The Invisible Circus is a 2001 British drama film adapted from Jennifer Egan’s novel, following a young woman’s journey across Europe in the 1970s to uncover the truth about her radical older sister’s mysterious death.
-
C.
The Invisible Circus
The Invisible Circus is Jennifer Egan’s debut novel, a coming-of-age story that follows a young woman retracing her radical older sister’s footsteps across 1970s Europe to uncover the truth about her mysterious death.
-
D.
La Clef des Grands Mystères
La Clef des Grands Mystères is a 19th-century occult treatise by Éliphas Lévi that explores ceremonial magic, esoteric philosophy, and the symbolic foundations of Western mysticism.
-
E.
The Book of Illusions
The Book of Illusions is a novel by Paul Auster that follows a grieving academic obsessed with a vanished silent film star, blending mystery, metafiction, and meditations on identity and loss.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (48)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
book
ⓘ
magic history book ⓘ non-fiction book ⓘ |
| arguesThat |
Robert-Houdin borrowed tricks from earlier magicians
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Robert-Houdin exaggerated his contributions to magic NERFINISHED ⓘ many feats attributed to Robert-Houdin were not original ⓘ |
| author | Harry Houdini NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| containsIllustrations | true ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| criticizes | Jean-Eugène Robert-Houdin NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| documents |
earlier conjuring literature
ⓘ
prior inventors of famous illusions ⓘ |
| focusesOnPeriod | 19th-century stage magic ⓘ |
| genre |
biographical criticism
ⓘ
magic history ⓘ |
| hasBibliographicCategory |
1908 non-fiction books
ⓘ
books about performing arts ⓘ works about magicians ⓘ |
| hasNotableTheme |
authorship of magical inventions
ⓘ
debunking of heroic narratives ⓘ myth-making in entertainment history ⓘ |
| hasPageCount | some 300 pages ⓘ |
| hasPerspective |
defensive of earlier magicians
ⓘ
highly critical of Robert-Houdin ⓘ |
| hasReception | divided among magicians and historians ⓘ |
| hasTargetAudience |
general readers interested in magic
ⓘ
magic historians ⓘ magicians ⓘ |
| includesBiographicalMaterialOn |
Harry Houdini
GENERATED
ⓘ
Jean-Eugène Robert-Houdin GENERATED ⓘ |
| influenced | subsequent historical reassessments of Robert-Houdin ⓘ |
| isDescribedAs | controversial ⓘ |
| isEarlyWorkOf | Harry Houdini as an author ⓘ |
| language | English ⓘ |
| mainSubject |
Jean-Eugène Robert-Houdin
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
exposure of magic methods ⓘ history of stage magic ⓘ |
| mediaType | print ⓘ |
| mentions | European magicians of the 18th and 19th centuries ⓘ |
| publicationYear | 1908 ⓘ |
| publisher | The Publishers Printing House NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| questionsLegacyOf | Jean-Eugène Robert-Houdin NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| questionsOriginalityOf | Jean-Eugène Robert-Houdin NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| relatedWork |
Houdini On Magic
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
The Secret Life of Houdini NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| subjectArea |
cultural history
ⓘ
performing arts ⓘ |
| timeOfWriting | early 20th century ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Subject: The Unmasking of Robert-Houdin Description of subject: The Unmasking of Robert-Houdin is a controversial 1908 book by magician Harry Houdini that critically challenges the legacy and originality of famed French illusionist Jean-Eugène Robert-Houdin.
Referenced by (1)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.